Legal status of scientific collaborations in the implementation of megascience projects

Abstract

Scientific collaboration can be viewed as an enlarged infrastructural element of the science and technology sector: an element comprising of scientific organizations, scientific equipment, and researchers. Thus, the formation of scientific collaborations requires the interaction of these three key elements. The projects which are currently under way or are planned for implementation in the coming years bring together research teams from different cities, countries and fields of scientific knowledge. These groups of researchers team up to achieve common goals on the basis of a decision taken by a state or a group of states to create a megascience project. The initiative to form a scientific collaboration may come from a scientific centre or a group of scientists, but the foundation of a scientific association within the framework of the megascience project occurs only as a result of a decision of a state or groups of states legalized in a specific way. This may come in the form of a conclusion of an international agreement on the foundation of a megascience project, the issuance of a directive from the public authority to establish a scientific centre, or the establishment of a legal entity with special powers to conduct activities within the megascience project. The study showed that the legal problems of scientific collaboration should be studied on the basis of the principles of interdisciplinarity, efficiency and effectiveness, independence, collaboration, financial security, freedom of movement of goods and funds for collaboration needs, priority of the public interest over the interests of individuals.